For years, Unity and Unreal have ruled the game‑development landscape, powering roughly 70 % of the titles that appeared on Steam in 2025. While Godot has carved out a niche and some heavyweight publishers cling to proprietary solutions such as Capcom’s RE Engine, the market has largely settled into a duopoly.
Against this backdrop, three industry veterans—Arjan Brussee, Sjoerd De Jong, and Michal Valient—have teamed up to launch Immens, an AI‑enhanced game engine that they believe can break the cycle of ever‑rising costs and stagnant workflows. The founders bring a résumé that reads like a who’s‑who of modern game development.
Brussee spent formative years at Epic Games, the creator of Unreal, and later helped shape titles at Guerrilla Games. De Jong cut his teeth on high‑profile projects at Boss Key and Apple, while Valient’s technical leadership spans several AAA pipelines. Together, they argue that the engine market is ripe for disruption, not because the existing tools are broken, but because new AI‑assisted techniques now make it feasible to rethink how an engine is built from the ground up.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Brussee explained that the timing feels right: “A few years ago the idea of an AI‑centric engine was more fantasy than reality. Today, with AI‑supported programming, we can start from scratch and still deliver a full‑featured product quickly, while keeping tight control over the process.” Valient, Immens’s chief technology officer, clarified that the AI they employ is not the “prompt‑to‑image” hype that dominates headlines.
Instead, the AI is woven into the engine’s architecture to make the codebase highly extensible. “If we design the engine with AI reasoning in mind, even a solo developer can add a custom particle system or a bespoke physics module without diving deep into low‑level scripting,” he said. “The AI helps you extend the engine faster, not just generate assets.” The motivation behind Immens is also economic.
Brussee described the current climate as “rough”: development budgets keep inflating, and studios risk their entire existence on a single title. “We need new ways of working that lower costs, shrink team sizes, and accelerate iteration,” he argued. De Jong echoed this sentiment, noting that the engine space has become overly standardized and consolidated. “Standardisation gave us a solid foundation, but now the industry faces challenges that require genuine innovation, not more of the same,” he said.
One of the pain points De Jong highlighted is the monolithic nature of existing engines. Developers must conform to proprietary file formats and rigid pipelines, which hampers creativity.
With AI, Immens aims to become an engine that adapts to the developer, not the other way around. “Flexibility is key,” he explained. “You should be able to swap components, append new tools, and craft interfaces that match your workflow. Imagine a UI that mirrors your personal shortcuts and features, tailored for each project.” Valient warned that AI, while powerful, can misbehave if left unchecked.
Immens therefore emphasizes transparency and user control. “You always know what the engine is doing, you can audit its decisions, and you can reproduce results reliably,” he said.
This level of oversight is crucial when AI is used to automate tasks that previously took weeks—such as generating a set of characters with specific traits—allowing developers to prototype ideas over a coffee break and then discard the temporary tools once they’ve served their purpose. The engine’s design deliberately avoids imposing a single workflow.
De Jong stressed that teams can decide how much AI to incorporate and where, as long as the underlying system can interpret AI outputs correctly. To facilitate interoperability, Immens relies on open standards and text‑based file formats.
“When files are human‑readable, any tool—Blender, Maya, or a custom generator—can ingest them. The AI can parse and manipulate these assets, creating a seamless bridge between disparate software,” Brussee noted. Critics of AI in game development often cite sensationalist claims, such as the notion that a prompt could spawn a Grand Theft Auto‑scale world instantly.
Immens’s team acknowledges the hype but positions AI as a tool rather than a replacement for craftsmanship. “AI makes everyone better, not a magic button that eliminates design,” Valient said.
“It’s a responsibility to use it responsibly, just like any other technology.” Economic anxieties also swirl around AI, with many questioning whether the sector is a bubble. Valient compared it to the dot‑com era: “The internet didn’t disappear after the bubble burst; the weak companies fell, but the technology endured. We’re building a solid engine; AI simply accelerates our development and expands what we can imagine.” Funding remains modest. Immens has secured its “first commitments” but has not disclosed amounts, describing them as “reasonable.” Brussee cautioned against over‑capitalization, noting that excess cash can breed complacency.
The company remains a lean operation—just the three founders plus a handful of helpers—by design. De Jong explained the trade‑off: “You can’t throw a million engineers at an engine and expect it to work. You need a focused team to make deliberate decisions, yet you also need enough resources to hit the narrow window of opportunity presented by AI’s rise.” Immens is currently building a proof‑of‑concept demo that showcases a generative‑AI‑driven editing workflow, slated for release later this month.
The timeline has already outpaced their original estimate; what they thought would take until year‑end is now arriving in half that time. While the business model is still forming, Brussee expressed admiration for Epic’s “we succeed when you succeed” philosophy, though he emphasized that it’s too early for firm commitments. Ultimately, the founders hope Immens will empower creators to take bigger creative risks. “We love games as an art form and want to see more daring, innovative experiences,” Brussee concluded.
“If our technology can help studios push boundaries and bring fresh ideas to players, that would be amazing.”